true, but, as noted above, Biden etc could remove the pre-funding nonsense if they wanted
so I guess that's the next thing I yell at my Senators about
― sleeve, Sunday, 3 October 2021 21:29 (two years ago) link
(I guess my point is, that would help even if Dejoy remained)
― sleeve, Sunday, 3 October 2021 21:30 (two years ago) link
geoffreyess wow! what's it like?
― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 3 October 2021 21:31 (two years ago) link
If the new service standards weren't cover for further crippling the Post Office, I think it would probably be a good thing to normalize packages taking longer to be shipped across this giant country. Have a special class of faster service for medicine (the opposite of media mail) but let general Priority take 7 business days to get from New York to California.
― papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 3 October 2021 22:18 (two years ago) link
wow! what's it like?
all the walking and going into random buildings I've always wanted, but the staffing/overtime situation is uh quite something, so we'll see how I feel in a few weeks or months. everyone's incredibly nice.
― the adventures of pavlo and schrödis (geoffreyess), Sunday, 3 October 2021 23:21 (two years ago) link
lol like an open-world game where all the doors work
what is the staffing/overtime situation
― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 3 October 2021 23:54 (two years ago) link
Good luck, Geof!
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 4 October 2021 00:04 (two years ago) link
To be fair the Australian postal service is fucked right now because they have so many staff isolating for COVID reasons (who’d have thought people who move around the community and interact with thousands would be high risk)
I just had an express mail thing take three days from Portland to Sydney and sit there for a week. Regular price packages sit in Sydney for weeks.
Last Christmas DHL was quicker and cheaper sending from Australia using a Pack and Send shop. Doesn’t seem to be the case going the other way, though.
― American Fear of Scampos (Ed), Monday, 4 October 2021 00:40 (two years ago) link
not at all :(
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 4 October 2021 01:15 (two years ago) link
OK, just giving it a glance I can see why this no mail to the Antipodes makes some degree of sense. First, it's supposedly temporary. Second, it's because New Zealand and Australia (to name two) have had next to no flights from the US since they locked everything down. Given the US mail often piggy backs on commercial flights, there just aren't any/many planes going in and out of those countries right now. Supposedly things are set to be back on track come November.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/consumers-fume-after-us-postal-service-suspends-australian-deliveries-20211001-p58wb8.html
Australia Post said it was affected by a global shortage of aircraft and reduced passenger flights.“Postal operators around the world are experiencing limited international flight capacity,” a spokeswoman said.“While Australia Post continues to accept all incoming international deliveries, the US Postal Service has temporarily suspended some outgoing parcel services to a number of countries, including Australia, due to air freight capacity issues.”The anticipated reopening of international borders in November will likely ease the air freight capacity issues.“More international passenger flights will add capacity to the freight moved across the border and presents opportunities for all industries, including postal services,” said Peter Liddell, a logistics expert and partner at professional services firm KPMG.But he said the resumption of United States Postal Service deliveries would depend on which routes reopened.The federal government invested more than $1 billion in the International Freight Assistance Mechanism, a scheme designed to keep Australia’s key international air-freight routes open during the pandemic.The scheme was introduced last year, shortly after the pandemic hit, forcing the number of commercial passenger flights to drop more than 90 per cent. It prioritises the export of high-value perishable products and the import of medical supplies, equipment and other goods of national importance.
“Postal operators around the world are experiencing limited international flight capacity,” a spokeswoman said.
“While Australia Post continues to accept all incoming international deliveries, the US Postal Service has temporarily suspended some outgoing parcel services to a number of countries, including Australia, due to air freight capacity issues.”
The anticipated reopening of international borders in November will likely ease the air freight capacity issues.
“More international passenger flights will add capacity to the freight moved across the border and presents opportunities for all industries, including postal services,” said Peter Liddell, a logistics expert and partner at professional services firm KPMG.
But he said the resumption of United States Postal Service deliveries would depend on which routes reopened.
The federal government invested more than $1 billion in the International Freight Assistance Mechanism, a scheme designed to keep Australia’s key international air-freight routes open during the pandemic.
The scheme was introduced last year, shortly after the pandemic hit, forcing the number of commercial passenger flights to drop more than 90 per cent. It prioritises the export of high-value perishable products and the import of medical supplies, equipment and other goods of national importance.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 4 October 2021 13:39 (two years ago) link
yeah!
similar to what's been mentioned above: ~60 hr weeks, limited days off, longer routes, not enough carriers / lots of turnover. hard to tell this early on how much of that is artificially created and how much isn't (e.g. # of addresses in my zip code has exploded recently). definitely looks like a hiring blitz locally, but I don't know what normal is.
thanks!
― the adventures of pavlo and schrödis (geoffreyess), Monday, 4 October 2021 22:33 (two years ago) link
Yesterday was my birthday, and lo and behold, the package from the UK that I was very worried about arrived, alongside two other packages containing book orders. I was a very happy lad.
― I'm a sovereign jazz citizen (the table is the table), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 20:01 (two years ago) link
I know I've often seemed to have better luck with the USPS than other posters in this thread, but I am feeling particularly positive about them today. 17 days ago, I accidentally dropped an envelope into the slot with no postage on it. I've been waiting ever since for it to pop up in my PO Box (the listed return address). Well, today I received an email from the company I sent it to, acknowledging receipt! Whether it showed up there postage due and they'll hit me with a surcharge for that, I can't say, but I'm fucking amazed that the USPS delivered it with no postage. (I will not be trying this trick again.)
― but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, 30 November 2021 01:01 (two years ago) link
Not the post office, but wow:
Keep hearing of train burglaries in LA on the scanner so went to #LincolnHeights to see it all. And… there’s looted packages as far as the eye can see. Amazon packages, @UPS boxes, unused Covid tests, fishing lures, epi pens. Cargo containers left busted open on trains. @CBSLA pic.twitter.com/JvNF4UVy2K— John Schreiber (@johnschreiber) January 13, 2022
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 14 January 2022 11:06 (two years ago) link
Damn.
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 14 January 2022 11:44 (two years ago) link
wow
― bad milk blood robot (sleeve), Friday, 14 January 2022 16:50 (two years ago) link
interesting follow-up https://www.lataco.com/union-pacific-theft-police-laid-off/
― towards fungal computer (harbl), Saturday, 22 January 2022 15:44 (two years ago) link
who could have predicted!! it_is_a_mystery
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 22 January 2022 15:46 (two years ago) link
Re-fund the police?
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 22 January 2022 15:47 (two years ago) link
more like security guards josh in chicago
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 22 January 2022 15:51 (two years ago) link
I guess I was confused by the references to the railroad police force, Union Pacific Police, the Union Pacific Police department, and the picture of someone with "Police" on their police uniform. But ... not police? OK, re-fund the Union Pacific (not) police, then.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 22 January 2022 16:08 (two years ago) link
well, fun fact! railroad police *are* police with police powers in the state they are in, but they are paid to do so by the railroad on railroad property. and, by federal law, their state police powers transfer to other states as they move or are transferred between states.
― towards fungal computer (harbl), Saturday, 22 January 2022 16:23 (two years ago) link
relocate the police
― dark end of the st. maud (sic), Saturday, 22 January 2022 16:52 (two years ago) link
josh in chicago there's no hypocrisy or bad faith in, on the one hand, having serious problems with the whole concept of police departments as presently constituted on the other hand, rolling my damn eyes at railroads laying off the people whose job it was to guard their shit and then complaining that everyone is stealing their shit
the union pacific police department, as far as i know, is not called into domestic disputes to brandish their firearms, they do not accost young black men walking home from a friend's house and tell them to empty their pockets, etc etc etc you donut so spare me the easy zing
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 22 January 2022 17:05 (two years ago) link
just the laziest regressive sub-conan gag you could have made and ordinarily i wouldn't respond but i dunno sometimes i just don't feel like letting it slide!
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 22 January 2022 17:07 (two years ago) link
oh i completely missed the point of josh's post!
― towards fungal computer (harbl), Saturday, 22 January 2022 17:11 (two years ago) link
Train robbery has also been around since forever. Railroads have had their own private 'police' forces, commonly known as 'railroad bulls' since forever, too, but big part of the job has always been to break the heads of anyone attempting to ride the rails for free.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Saturday, 22 January 2022 19:44 (two years ago) link
let me Aimless that for you
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 22 January 2022 20:10 (two years ago) link
I do love you all
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Saturday, 22 January 2022 20:13 (two years ago) link
jeez, take it easy, everyone. if you can't make lazy sub-Conan (?) easy zings about train robberies, then what is ilx even for?
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 22 January 2022 20:36 (two years ago) link
copaganda working on JiC, Manchurian Candidating ILX: 🧵
THREAD. I noticed something fascinating: around the same time in recent days, each major corporate news source began talking about a new crime hysteria: a supposed crisis of theft from the railroad industry. But if you look deeper, something very scary is happening.— Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) January 22, 2022
― dark end of the st. maud (sic), Sunday, 23 January 2022 03:53 (two years ago) link
somehow this whole story ended up on the USPS thread, when its not even about mail theft (which btw is a federal crime)
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Sunday, 23 January 2022 04:20 (two years ago) link
good thread sic, thank you
― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 23 January 2022 12:53 (two years ago) link
yes, thank you, abolish the police now plz
― bad milk blood robot (sleeve), Sunday, 23 January 2022 16:11 (two years ago) link
like if the liberal media could maybe just approach anything other than absolutely baby-brained credulity when reporting cop shit
― concentrating on Rationality (the book) (will), Sunday, 23 January 2022 16:31 (two years ago) link
they are just doing their job, upholding hegemony
― Nedlene Grendel as Basenji Holmo (map), Sunday, 23 January 2022 17:28 (two years ago) link
Good thread, thanks sic.
Also Aimless is right, most railroad bulls are the same as any other numbskull cop. I've been chased by a few in my lifetime, and they suck.
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Sunday, 23 January 2022 18:51 (two years ago) link
Had a package due to me today, as of about 6 it was out for delivery. But when I checked a bit ago it was suddenly "insufficient address - return to sender". Google tells me that either it was indeed returned to sender, which means I have to contact them and wait god knows how long for it to come back or, as happens sometimes, the carrier was overloaded today and scanned it as such to game the metrics and not have it count against them.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 28 January 2022 05:52 (two years ago) link
Knowing better than to call the main 1-800 number, I called the local post office this morning. Creeping up on 90 minutes on hold so far. Either still understaffed, or their morale is (understandably) sufficiently low to the point where they just do not give a fuck.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 28 January 2022 15:44 (two years ago) link
even like.....6 years ago I was having that problem with my post office (where I couldn't get anybody on the phone). gotta imagine now it's multiplied 100 fold nationwide.
― they were written with a ouija board and a rhyming dictionary (Neanderthal), Friday, 28 January 2022 15:50 (two years ago) link
I mean, I get it. Things are awful there, not much I can do, but wait. I planned for some hold time, but didn't anticipate needing to book a full business day being on hold.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 28 January 2022 15:52 (two years ago) link
yeah, sadly "driving down there" seems to be the only option, and then it's waiting in a 2 hour line :/
― they were written with a ouija board and a rhyming dictionary (Neanderthal), Friday, 28 January 2022 16:09 (two years ago) link
It's just annoying because a lot of the advice I'm seeing online is to try and contact them ASAP, in my specific situation, because you can sometimes catch them before it gets shipped back. Couldn't go in person today because of work, but I apparently will waste my entire day today on hold and all day tomorrow standing in line. I mean, c'mon, I know it's the USPS and my expectations should be sufficiently lowered, but I would imagine they can't just provide absolutely zero customer support.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 28 January 2022 16:12 (two years ago) link
Holy shit, hit almost two and a half hours and they hung up on me. This is infuriating.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 28 January 2022 16:41 (two years ago) link
i feel like I had to call a regional office number when that was happening to me, and when I got in touch with THEM suddenly I got a call not long after. but....that may only have worked for where i live.
― they were written with a ouija board and a rhyming dictionary (Neanderthal), Friday, 28 January 2022 17:15 (two years ago) link
Trying again, still on hold for the second time. Probably going to give up, not really feeling like wasting even more time on this, nor does anyone give a shit about my USPS live tweeting experience, lol.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 28 January 2022 17:19 (two years ago) link
The Senate passed the Postal Reform act, and Biden will sign it.
The Postal Reform bill will place the United States Postal Service on the path toward financial stability by repealing the onerous and financially debilitating pre-funding mandate, ensuring six-day delivery, adding much-needed transparency to postal operations, and maximizing participation in Medicare — a program which the Postal Service and its employees have contributed over $34 billion toward — by enacting prospective Medicare integration. Postal Reform is fair to active and retired postal workers and is a crucial development in the fight to preserve and strengthen the peoples’ Postal Service.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, 9 March 2022 00:47 (two years ago) link
Postal service just got easier to salvage.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, 9 March 2022 00:55 (two years ago) link
that is legitimately great news
― thinkmanship (sleeve), Wednesday, 9 March 2022 01:02 (two years ago) link
Hell yes. Eat my ass, DeJoy.
― When the Pain That You Feel is the Bite of an Eel, That's a Moray (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 9 March 2022 01:24 (two years ago) link